1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device with a USB connector, such as a USB memory.
2. Background Art
Conventionally, various devices are connected with each other using USB cables. For example, a peripheral device is connected to a USB female connector of a notebook type personal computer by using a USB cable. There is also a case where a USB male connector connecting to such a USB female connector is provided on a peripheral device itself so that the peripheral device is connected directly to, e.g., a notebook type personal computer without using any USB cable. An example of such a case is the use of a so-called USB memory. A USB memory can be defined as a memory card provided with a USB male connector. In such a USB memory, a memory chip, a controller, etc. are housed in a housing, and a USB male connector connecting to such circuits is provided on one end. A protection cap (or protection member) for preventing the memory portion from suffering electrostatic discharge damage or the terminal portion of the male connector from short-circuiting is removably provided on the USB male connector. In a usage state, after the cap is removed, the USB male connector of the USB memory is connected to the USB female connector of an OA device such as a personal computer.
Recently, personal computers have become remarkably smaller. With such a trend, the distance between USB female connectors provided on a personal computer, etc. has decreased considerably. Accordingly, when a user intends to connect two peripheral devices such as USB memories to USB female connectors of a personal computer at the same time, depending on the type of the peripheral devices, the peripheral devices could interfere with each other, so that it would not be possible to connect these devices to female connectors of a device of the personal computer, as shown as the peripheral devices 100, 100 and the female connectors 300 of a device 200 in FIG. 19. This may also happen when a cartoon character or the like is attached to the other end of the USB memory.
Thus, conventionally, there have been cases where a plurality of devices such as USB memories each having a USB male connector cannot be connected to a device such as a personal computer provided with USB female connectors.
When a device including the aforementioned conventional USB connector is actually being used, it is highly possible that the cap thereof is lost. In order to prevent this, conventionally, the cap, which is removed, is put on the other end of the main body, as in the case of a fountain pen. However, the cap can be unexpectedly easily detached from the main body and lost. FIGS. 20 to 24 show such a case. That is to say, a cap 102 of the USB memory 100 is removed from a memory main body 101 to expose a USB male connector 103 (FIG. 20, FIG. 21). The removed cap 102 is fitted on a projection 104 for holding the cap provided on an end of the main body 101 (FIG. 22). The USB memory 100 is used in this state. In such a usage state, it is often possible that an external force 400 is applied to the cap 102 (FIG. 23). The cause of this external force, for example, is that a USB cable connecting to other peripheral devices, or a cable connecting a mouse with a personal computer, etc. hits the cap 102. On such an occasion, the cap 102 can be inevitably easily detached from the projection 104, i.e., separated from the memory main body 101 (FIG. 24). The cap 102 can be lost in such a case. In order to ensure the engagement between the cap 102 and the projection 104, various measures, e.g., the increase in size of the projection 104, the addition of a completely different engagement maintaining mechanism, etc., can be taken. However, from the viewpoint of avoiding an increase in size, a more complex mechanism, and the increased cost, etc., these measures are not practical for the use in USB memories.
Under the conditions required for peripheral devices that the mechanism be simple and of a low cost, it has been practically impossible for a device with a USB connector that when a USB memory thereof is used, the cap for protecting the connector is securely fixed to the main body so that it would not be removed from the main body.